It's crazy to consider that there are only two active racing games in the top 100 earning eSports events in the world. They are iRacing.com and Forza Motorsport 7 and neither of the two even have a top 50 place. Yet racing games have been at the forefront of competitive play among casual gamers for over 30 years!
Indeed we would have to cast our minds all the way back to 1984 to remember the first split screen and high quality multiplayer racing game to be developed. That was Pitstop II which was released for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit family. The first Mario Kart which also ranks as one of the best retro racing games to be created didn't come out until 1992. Yet the sheer originality of that game for the time is still under appreciated. Introducing cartoon animations, cute characters, dodgy and dangerous tracks and plenty of original weapons, Mario Kart captured the imagination of many a racing gamer and brought friends together to play for hours at a time, pitting their skills against each other and the variety of mad and whimsical tracks available.
Pitstop II was the first ever split screen racing games and for me the first high quality multiplayer racing game ever to be made
Fast forward to 2019 and Mario Kart is in it's 8th edition with a 9th in development. It's the longest on going racing game series in the world yet it features in no big eSports tournaments. So why is that? The answer lies in the fact that after Mario Kart 64 the developers took a new turn with the game that many didn't favour. That was to increase the luck element in the game and detract from the skill element that was so present in the Super Mario Kart for SNES and Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64. Whilst you could see Nintendo wanted to broaden the appeal for the series it alienated some loyal fans that had loved the series for so long due to its skill based nature while still being very creative and unique.
This brilliant article explores the skill involved in the game for the SNES and anyone who has played number 8 will realise the big differences between this version and the latest one.
You can play up to 8 players using two Nintendo Switches
Still even though Mario Kart 8 is more luck based it does still involve an element of skill and could be played competitively. Some have argued like with all racers that it is the lack of team element in the game and that of other racers that put people off arranging big tournaments for it. While there is no team in Mario Kart 8 what I would argue is on the Nintendo Switch it still allows up to 8 players to compete across two switches making it competitive and a good game to watch. While it may not be the most "nerdish" and serious of games to compete on the big stage it could bring a more light hearted and entertaining element to this new recognised sport and therefore bring in a different set of fans watching on. This vice article makes a good case for the game to become a successful eSport. Perhaps someday eSports will branch out from the likes of the FPS and RTS into more fluffy and colourful games like MK8.